New Windsor shopping 140 acres

NEW WINDSOR — Responsibility for the future development of 140 acres of New York International Plaza is about to revert back to the town.

BY Michael Randall

NEW WINDSOR — Responsibility for the future development of 140 acres of New York International Plaza is about to revert back to the town.

Albany-based First Columbia has been marketing the 260-acre business park under a $75 million, 99-year lease with the town since 1999. Under terms still being worked out Friday, they will still have a role at the site, according to New Windsor Supervisor George Green.

The land, adjacent to Stewart International Airport, formerly was home to the Stewart Army Subpost housing. The town took over the site at no cost after the Army moved out in June 1999.

Aside from confirming that some changes in First Columbia's contract were being worked out, Green said Friday he wasn't ready to talk about details yet. A call to First Columbia was not returned.

The town has hired Jim Petro, chairman of the Orange County Industrial Development Agency and a former town Planning Board chairman and county legislator, as a part-time employee to pick up where First Columbia leaves off in marketing and developing the site.

Petro said "it's very preliminary" but he's already talked to a few potential developers for the remaining acreage.

"I'm looking for a steady cash flow to the Town of New Windsor. I'm looking for (projects that will bring) jobs, and I'm looking for tax rateables," Petro said. "That's the bottom line."

Also on the to-do list, Petro said, will be completion of the demolition of old Army barracks buildings, which began about four years ago.

The site has attracted a variety of tenants since 1999. These include the Orange County Business Accelerator, an incubator for start-up businesses that filled its 10,000-square-foot office space in a matter of months after opening in October 2009.

Fifty acres out of the 260 were allotted to K. Hovnanian Homes for a town-house project called The Grove. It stalled at 57 units a few years ago, but now Baker Residential of White Plains is ready to resume construction of another 142 two- and three-bedroom homes to complete the project.

Other occupants include a law firm, an accounting firm and corporate offices of Dynegy, the company now operating the Roseton and Danskammer power plants in the Town of Newburgh.

In 2006, the state designated International Plaza a shovel-ready site, meaning it has cleared the preliminary hurdles to development — zoning, environmental reviews, water and sewer assessments, etc. — and needs only to go through site-plan approval before construction can begin.